Garden Latkes
Eating the Summer Sun
There is a moment toward the end of summer when the garden is impossibly abundant.
Beets and carrots swell beneath the soil. Summer squash multiply under broad leaves, becoming enormous overnight. Beans hang heavily, burdening the vines, and flowers lean into the paths.
Everywhere, there is food. This is the time of year when we get to eat the abundance of the summer sun.
For months, the plants have been performing their quiet alchemy- drinking in sunlight, water and the living soil to create something entirely new. Leaf becomes root. Flower becomes fruit. Sunlight becomes a sweet fruit. And eventually, it becomes us.
There is simpleness and deep nourish in eating seasonally. Instead of beginning with a recipe and taking an exact list to the store, we can walk into the garden or a farmer’s market and ask:
What is abundant? What is here?
A crooked carrot.
Three potatoes.
A striped beet.
An overgrown zucchini.
A handful of beans.
Some wild oregano.
This is one of my favorite ways to cook at the end of summer: let the harvest write your recipe.
These simple Garden Latkes are made in this spirit. They aren't precious about ingredients or measurements. Use whatever roots and summer vegetables are overflowing from your garden, CSA box, or farmers market..
Eat the summer rainbow while Mother Earth is offering it up.
Garden Latkes
A use-what-you-have recipe for the late-summer harvest.
Use whatever roots and summer vegetables are abundant. Aim for about 4 cups grated vegetables total, with roughly half being starchier vegetables to help everything hold together.
Gather
4 cups grated vegetables — potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, zucchini, summer squash, turnips, sweet potato, kohlrabi, or whatever you have
2 eggs
¼–½ cup flour
½ small onion, grated
1–2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Handful of chopped fresh herbs
Ghee or olive oil for frying
Make
Grate the vegetables. If using zucchini or summer squash, squeeze out as much moisture as possible with a clean kitchen towel.
Mix everything together. Add eggs, onion, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and ¼ cup flour (Substitute chickpea flour for GF). Add a little more flour if needed—the mixture should hold together when pressed in your hands.
Fry. Heat a generous layer of ghee or oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add about ¼ cup of the mixture for each latke and flatten gently.
Cook until golden and crisp, about 3–5 minutes per side.
Serve warm with yogurt or sour cream, garden salsa, or whatever else is abundant.
Every batch will be a little different, which is rather the point. Open to the abundance that is around you.
